In a Wall Street Journal opinion column, John Sailer, a fellow at the National Association of Scholars, explores how Texas Tech University was using diversity statements and a DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) committee to evaluate qualities of candidates for faculty positions.
Sailer obtained documents from Texas Tech’s Department of Biology Search Committee, which showed certain candidates were flagged or disqualified for saying certain things about equality versus equity or believing DEI to be unimportant in the classroom.
“To my knowledge, these documents—published in redacted form by the National Association of Scholars—are the first evaluations of prospective faculty DEI contributions to be made publicly available," Sailer wrote. "They confirm what critics of DEI statements have long argued: That they inevitably act as ideological litmus tests.”
According to documents obtained by Sailer through Freedom of Information requests, the biology department’s search committee flagged one candidate for “not knowing the difference between ‘equality’ and ‘equity.’” Another was “praised” for using a “land acknowledgement,” which according to Sailer, is “a statement noting that Native Americans once lived in what is now the United States.”
Texas Tech established a DEI committee that would “require and strongly weight a diversity statement from all candidates,” Sailer said. "These short, written declarations are meant to summarize an academic job seeker’s past and potential contributions to DEI efforts on campus."
One candidate demonstrated a "lack of understanding" related to DEI and was flagged by the committee, according to the documents. Another was praised for a well-rounded knowledge of "unconscious bias."
These required diversity statements represent "viewpoint discrimination" or judgment of a viewpoint rather than merit, Sailer said.
"Requiring faculty to catalog their commitment to those views necessarily blackballs anybody who dissents from an orthodoxy that has nothing to do with scientific competence," he said.
Sailer also said that "heavily valuing DEI while selecting cell biologists, virologists and immunologists constitutes a massive failure of priority. This is an issue of academic freedom, and it is a degradation of higher education."
After Sailer's piece was published, the Texas Tech Office of Communications and Marketing released a statement.
"Texas Tech University's faculty hiring practices will always emphasize disciplinary excellence and the ability of candidates to support our priorities in student success, impactful scholarship and community engagement," the statement said. "Recently we learned of a department that required a diversity, equity and inclusion statement in addition to the usual applicant materials as part of a faculty search. We immediately withdrew this practice and initiated a review of hiring procedures across all colleges and departments. We will withdraw the use of these statements and evaluation rubrics if identified."